Designing a network, including wireless, computer, cellular, or other communications networks, to substantially cover a particular geographical area, such as a metropolitan city, is complex and time consuming. Some providers utilize software to calculate network coverage once routers, cell sites, or other communication nodes are placed. However, before that can occur, the provider must determine how many nodes are needed to cover the particular geographical area and where the nodes should be placed, which is challenging, requires careful planning, and often involves trial and error. For example, while it is important to ensure that the geographical area is substantially covered, placing the nodes such that many of their ranges overlap can result in communications issues, such as a user device being unable to distinguish between the different signals from the nodes, or surplus nodes being included in the design. Each node is an additional cost to the provider. Accordingly, including surplus nodes in the network design may substantially increase the cost to the provider.
Further, careful consideration must be given to place the nodes relative to the provider's physical network. Building such a network or adding to it is a complicated and expensive endeavor. Construction of such a network typically involves trenching streets, physically laying cable in the trenches, and resurfacing the impacted streets, among other things. In some estimates, this expense is considerable and may be as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars per city block. Often, particularly with networks relying on fiber-optic cabling, building such a network requires carefully planning where it is possible to lay fiber and working closely with local governments and businesses that will be impacted when construction of the fiber network commences. The task is complicated as the network design must account for the locations where it is possible to build the network and must include physical connections to various customers. Moreover, connecting to such networks often requires customers to have to purchase or otherwise obtain hardware and/or software. Requiring each customer to have individual hardware to connect to the network is inconvenient for both the customer and the provider, as such hardware requires access by the provider to install and service the physical connections to the network.
It is with these observations in mind, among others, that various aspects of the present disclosure were conceived and developed.